"The key selling point for the HiFive Unleashed: It's the first off-the-shelf RISC-V product to be able to boot operating systems running the Linux kernel, which recently received mainstream support for the RISC-V ISA."

"As making faster CPUs gets more difficult on the hardware side, a group of researchers have looked into improving them on the software side by creating a new instruction set that someday might completely replace x86 and ARM."

"It's open source and this is big news... Debian Linux is basically fully operational. "

We founded SiFive to bring the power of open source to the
semiconductor industry. We do this not only by supporting the RISC-V
specification, but also by implementing the specification and getting
usable chips into the hands of developers as quickly as we can. We did
exactly that just over a year ago when we introduced the open source,
Arduino-compatible
HiFive1 dev board based
on our Freedom
Everywhere
line of 32-bit microcontrollers. Today, we’re proud to be doing the
same thing with our Freedom
Unleashed
64-bit, Linux-capable system-on-chip (SoC) platform. Meet the HiFive
Unleashed, the world’s first RISC-V-based, Linux-capable development
board.

Seeing is Believing

Industry skeptics have previously dismissed RISC-V as an academic
project, low performance, and only for microcontrollers. HiFive
Unleashed, featuring the SiFive Freedom U540 SoC, ends all of
that. Linux and RISC-V were meant for each other, and the HiFive
Unleashed dev board brings them together for the first time.

Features & Specifications

Here’s what’s actually on the HiFive Unleashed board:

SiFive Freedom U540 SoC

8 GB DDR4 with ECC

Gigabit Ethernet port

32 MB quad SPI flash from ISSI

microSD card for removable storage

FMC connector for future expansion

Dimensions

The board measures is 120 mm x 90 mm. If you include the power button,
which sticks out from the board, the dimensions are 129 mm x 90 mm.

HiFive Unleashed block diagram

SiFive Freedom U540 SoC

The foundation of the HiFive Unleashed board is the Freedom U540 SoC:

World’s fastest RISC-V Processor

World’s only Linux-capable RISC-V SoC

4+1 Multi-Core Coherent Configuration, up to 1.5 GHz

4x U54 RV64GC Application Cores with Sv39 Virtual Memory Support

1x E51 RV64IMAC Management Core

Coherent 2 MB L2 Cache

64-bit DDR4 with ECC

1x Gigabit Ethernet

Built on TSMC 28 nm process

SiFive Freedom U540 SoC block diagram

SiFive Freedom U540 SoC

HiFive Unleashed Use Cases

Build a RISC-V computer

Add features to Linux

Port packages to your distro

Be part of the RISC-V revolution

What is RISC-V?

RISC-V has been described as the “Linux” of processors. RISC-V is
a free, open, extensible instruction set architecture (ISA) invented
by the co-founders of SiFive. The RISC-V specification is now
maintained by the nonprofit RISC-V Foundation,
whose membership has increased more than six-fold since 2015 and now
consists of over 100 members, including some of the largest companies
in the world.

Benefits of RISC-V

Simple, free and open – lower IP costs

Architected for security and customization

Established and growing software ecosystem fostered by many, not one

Freedom to specialize, optimize, and differentiate

How is SiFive leading the charge?

Founded by the creators of RISC-V

Most experience in taping out RISC-V chips

Leadership role on RISC-V Foundation committees and specifications

Manufacturing Plan

We first publicly demonstrated this board on February 3, 2018 at
FOSDEM. Similar to
our previous board, the
HiFive1, we’re building
our initial batches locally and will test each board ourselves.

Shipping & Fulfillment

Crowd Supply will be handling all fulfillment and logistics. As such,
all boards will be shipping from Portland, Oregon in the US. See The
Crowd Supply
Guide
for more information on their ordering and shipping policies.

Risks & Challenges

Our early boards are up and running! We are still characterizing and
bringing up the board, so the final specs may change slightly. But the
silicon and board are in great shape and we can’t wait to see it in
the hands of developers!